The present invention relates to appliance hinges, and, more particularly, to an improved hinge for mounting an oven door on a stove and holding the door in closed, broil and open positions.
Various types of hinges have been developed and utilized for mounting an oven door upon the body of the stove and for providing a mechanism which will allow stable positioning of the door in the closed, partially open or broil, and fully open conditions. Moreover, it is been found desirable to provide door hinge assemblies which would enable the entire door to be removed from the body of the stove to facilitate cleaning of the oven cavity.
As is well known, springs are widely employed in such hinges in order to provide a biasing action tending to close the door when that is desired and some tend to hold the door in the broil position or in the fully open position. Such hinges and the mountings to effect the pivoting of the members which provide the translation of the spring force into the action upon the door frequently require substantial space, and this can be a problem from the standpoint of providing a relatively thin oven door or locating the operating mechanism of the hinge within the door. Generally, it is advantageous to provide the bulk of the hinge mechanism within the door so that the door may be readily disassembled from the stove body and also to minimize the effect of the very high temperatures during a self-cleaning oven cycle upon such operating components.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel hinge for oven doors and the like which is relatively slim, employs relatively few parts, and which provides stable positioning of the door in the open, broil and closed conditions.
It is also an object to provide a hinge which may be fabricated relatively economically and which exhibits relatively long life.
Another object is to provide a stove assembly employing such hinges for mounting the oven door and enabling facile mounting and removal of the door from the stove body.